Category Archive for: responsive web design

RFP ROBOT: Website Request for Proposal Generator

The time has come for a new website (or website redesign), which means you need to write a website request for proposal or web RFP. A Google search produces a few examples, but they vary wildly and don’t seem to speak really to your goals for developing or redesigning a new website. You need to write a website RFP that will clearly articulate your needs and generate responses from the best website designers and developers out there. But how?

Have no fear, RFP Robot is here. He will walk you through a step-by-step process to help you work through the details of your project and create a PDF formatted website design RFP that will provide the information vendors need to write an accurate bid. RFP Robot will tell you what info you should include, point out pitfalls, and give examples.

I received a really wonderful question from Bryan Braun the other day during a workshop I was giving at Sparkbox. He asked if, over the years, if there were opinions about web design and development I strongly held that I don’t anymore. I really didn’t have a great answer at the time, even though surely if I could rewind my brain there would be some embarrassing ones in there. At the risk of some heavy self-back-patting, this is exactly the reason I try and be pretty open-minded. If you aren’t, you end up eating crow. And for what? When you crap on an idea, you sound like a jerk at the time, and likely cause more harm than good. If you end up right, you were still a jerk. If you end up wrong, you were a jerk and a fool. I like the sentiment the web is a big…

I’m just back from An Event Apart Seattle, and it was fantastic. High five to y’all I got to run into there. Lots of big moments happen at An Event Apart. Microsoft took the opportunity to announce they are officially working on getting CSS grid into Edge, meaning full on cross browser compatibility for that, coming soon. Ethan Marcotte was there, and before giving his excellent talk about patterns in design, told us that that very stage was the first time he ever uttered the words “responsive web design.” See, An Event Apart has a pretty solid history of being a place where industry changing ideas seed and blossom. Fortunately for all of us, there are five more shows this year: Boston, May 15-17 Washington DC, Jul 10-12 Chicago, Aug 28-30 San Francisco, Oct 30-Nov 1 Denver, Dec 11-13 I’ll be giving my full-day session in Chicago! Come Learn and…

As Atomic CSS (also known as Functional CSS) has been gaining in popularity, some confusion has occurred about similar related terms. The goal of this article is to clarify this terminology. There are other projects that use the term Atomic, including Atomic Web Design by Brad Frost. Atomic CSS is a completely separate concept from these. Let’s start by defining Atomic CSS: Atomic CSS is the approach to CSS architecture that favors small, single-purpose classes with names based on visual function. There are different ways to write Atomic CSS (see variations below). One example would be this: .bgr-blue { background-color: #357edd; } The term “Atomic CSS” was coined by Thierry Koblenz in his foundational article “Challenging CSS Best Practices” in October 2013. Some people started referring to this approach as “Functional CSS” some time later. Though there have been cases in the past where Functional CSS has been used to…

If you’re reading this, you’re probably already familiar with responsive images. Even so, it may be helpful to have a little background. (Then we’ll get to the WordPress part, and how to make them even better with Cloudinary.) For most of the Web’s existence, any time you wanted to include an image on a web page, you would create markup that looked like this: <img src=”/path/to/my/image.jpg” alt=”a very nice image”> In this example, the <img> element references a single image file named `image.jpg` located on a server at `/path/to/my`. This markup is straightforward in that it tells the browser to download and render a specific image file, referenced by the src element, onto the web page. This arrangement was fine until 2010, when Ethan Marcotte published his seminal article, Responsive Web Design, which popularized the technique of using Cascading Style Sheet media queries to modify the layout of web pages…

If you think fashion and technology change too frequently for people to keep up, the same is true with search engine optimization (SEO). Standards in the field of SEO get updated practically every year, and this year is no different. In this article, we will discuss SEO trends for 2017 that will set the tone for search, and bring websites and companies to a whole new SEO ballgame. Why Should You Update Your SEO Strategies Regularly? This question is really a no-brainer, but unfortunately a lot of companies fall prey to one fallacy: that their website will run along with the times even without updating it so much. This mindset couldn’t be farther from the truth! Here are some reasons why you should keep up with updates on SEO strategies: Google is a fickle-minded but extremely powerful online giant. If you haven’t recognized the power of Google, then you’re probably…

People who aspire to boost the success of their businesses need to stay on top of technological trends as well as the industry in which they operate in. In today’s generation of mobile users with short attention spans, it’s important to let people take notice of your company through their tablets and handhelds. The question for many business owners who want to capture the ever-lucrative mobile market is this: Should I turn my business responsive website into an app? Responsive Website to an App Webflow.com describes an app as “a self-contained program or piece of software designed to fulfill a particular purpose.” An app is basically a program tailored for a particular service, which a traditional website may not be able to do. Although it is believed by most people in business that developing their own app is a way to stay on top of everyone else, this may not be…

My previous post sparked a lot of response in the comments, on Twitter, from Aaron Gustafson and Luke Whitehouse. Those responses have helped me refine my thoughts and reconsider my tone, so I want to take another stab: a less-combative approach; more clearly walking through my thought process, while dispensing with the too-clever-by-half LSAT Game stuff that Adrian Roselli fairly called out as sloppy; and trying to be a little less insufferable. You should still read that one first for context. On Tone and Good Faith A few initial thoughts. In response to my post, Chip Cullen tweeted: RE that article railing against PE:https://t.co/HfxZNkX9BGIt comes at a development mindset rooted in compassion with active disdain— Chip Cullen (@chipcullen) December 5, 2016 I’d say intellectual-gotcha glee more than active disdain, but point taken. Read Aaron’s posts about egalitarianism and accessibility (and his response to my post); he is thoughtful and compassionate. He…

Pixeldust’s challenge was to build an elegant and scalable site giving Mattress Pro an equal presence to Sealy and other large mattress manufacturers. Pixeldust designed a brand-new identity and sleek interface that incorporated Flash and a content management system. The overall result proved to be a huge success: the website played a big role in Mattress Pro’s successful merger negotiations with Mattress Firm.

Pixeldust worked with The nFusion Group to create an animated hero piece for their client Toshiba. Pixeldust employed Flash technology and a little imagination to bring the piece to life. Pixeldust has also built numerous rich media based banner ads for Toshiba’s many interactive campaigns.